What is it about?
This paper explores Greek-Cypriot media representations of national identities during negotiations on a United Nation Plan (the Annan Plan), aiming to reunite ethnically divided Cyprus under a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation. The study analyzed thematically 57 editorials and lead commentaries published in all the daily Greek-Cypriot Press from the presentation of the Annan Plan in November 2002 to April 2004, at which point two simultaneous referenda were held. The study’s findings are consistent with ideas that national identifications are not static and provides an in-depth exploration of exclusive forms of Cypriot identities vis-àvis more inclusive forms and vis-à-vis hellenocentric identifications.
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Perspectives
Fears related to any potential peace settlement resurface especially at times of intense negotiations like the case study presented herein. The discourse of nationalism in the media covering negotiations, as this study also showed, is infused with such dividing fears. But fears, as national identities, are social constructs and can be manipulated to serve specific political ends. The reproduction of the Us vs Other pattern on national/ethnic grounds can only damage people’s agency to make choices for the future – not only in the framework of a potential referendum but also in everyday life and beyond. So, an in-depth understanding of the discursive elements of nationalism in the media which tend to exclude others will only benefit to the direction of enabling people to transcend ethnic division.
Dr Maria Avraamidou
University of Cyprus
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Exploring Greek-Cypriot media representations of national identities in ethnically divided Cyprus: the case of the 2002/2004 Annan Plan negotiations, National Identities, April 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/14608944.2017.1297783.
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